A Story to Save Your Life : : Communication and Culture in Migrants' Search for Asylum / / Sarah Bishop.

• Superior document: Title is part of eBook package: De Gruyter Columbia University Press Complete eBook-Package 2022
• VerfasserIn: Bishop, Sarah,
• Place / Publishing House: New York, NY : : Columbia University Press, , [2022]; ©2022
• Year of Publication: 2022
• Language: English
• Physical Description: 1 online resource

A young woman flees violence in Mexico and seeks protection in the United States—only to be trafficked as a domestic worker in the Bronx. A decorated immigration judge leaves his post when the policies he proudly upheld capsize in the wake of political turmoil. A Gambian translator who was granted asylum herself talks with other African women about how immigration officers expect victims of torture to behave. A border patrol officer begins to question the training that instructs him to treat the children he finds in the Arizona desert like criminals.Through these and other powerful firsthand accounts, A Story to Save Your Life offers new insight into the harrowing realities of seeking protection in the United States. Sarah C. Bishop argues that cultural differences in communication shape every stage of the asylum process, playing a major but unexamined role. Migrants fleeing persecution must reconstruct the details of their lives so governmental authorities can determine whether their experiences justify protection. However, Bishop shows, many factors influence whether an applicant is perceived as credible, from the effects of trauma on the ability to recount an experience chronologically to culturally rooted nonverbal behaviors and displays of emotion. For asylum seekers, harnessing the power of autobiographical storytelling can mean the difference between life and death. A Story to Save Your Life emphasizes how memory, communication, and culture intertwine in migrants’ search for safety.

Table of Contents

Frontmatter -- Contents -- Acknowledgments -- Note on the Cover Art -- 1 Halted Expectations -- In Their Own Words: Josh Childress, Former U.S. Customs and Border Protection Agent -- 2 Long Stories Short -- In Their Own Words: Alina Das, Immigration Attorney -- 3 Emotional Labor -- In Their Own Words: Ethan Taubes, Asylum Officer Trainer -- 4 Nonverbal Communication and Credibility -- In Their Own Words: Dr. Renée Sicalides, Psychologist -- 5 Deterring Asylum -- In Their Own Words: Jeffery Chase, Former Immigration Judge -- 6 The Return -- In Their Own Words: Rafael, Detained Asylum Seeker -- Postscript -- Appendix Methods and Trauma- Informed Research Design -- Notes -- Bibliography -- Index